4 ICSA TODAY
SPECIAL REPORTS
Note:
References for specific sources cited in Special Reports are
available at icsahome.com/elibrary/icsatoday/references
Report From France and French-Speaking Countries
Catherine Perry
The Loss of MIVILUDES and Controversies Around
Anthroposophy in France
In 1996, the Interministerial Observatory on Cults (Observatoire
interministériel sur les sectes) was established in France. By
presidential decree in November 2002, this agency was
reorganized and attached to the Prime Minister under the
acronym MIVILUDES (Mission interministérielle de vigilance et
de lutte contre les dérives sectaires). The agency’s task has been
to observe, analyze, and combat cultic abuses, in addition to
informing the public and coordinating aid to victims, whose
number is estimated to be at least 500,000.1 The agency
has been run by approximately fifteen interdisciplinary
professionals in the fields of education, health, law, and finance
it also has benefitted from partners in other ministries and a
large network of regional correspondents.
A first harbinger of potential troubles for the agency came
in October 2018, when Serge Blisko, president of MIVILUDES
since August 2012, was not replaced after he retired. Then, on
October 1, 2019, the government announced that MIVILUDES
would be dissolved on January 1, 2020, and merged with the
CIPDR, the Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of
Delinquency and Radicalization (Comité interministériel de
prévention de la délinquance et de la radicalisation), which is
attached to the Ministry of the Interior. Only three to four
officers will remain in the merged organization, and it will
operate with diminished resources.2 The government argues
that this change was prompted by budgetary and restructuring
obligations. But, according to Georges Fenech, president of
MIVILUDES from 2008 to 2012, this decision is “a catastrophe,”
which “has terrible consequences. [MIVILUDES] was envied
by the whole world.”3 Fenech also stated that “[t]his is not
a reorganization it’s a disappearance” resulting from an
“irresponsible” decision by the French government.4
Fenech’s assessment is not without merit. By integrating into
the CIPDR, MIVILUDES will no longer concentrate on cults as
its specific tasks will be absorbed into the fight against Islamic
terrorism. The government’s decision may well reflect an
increasing concern over the dangers of radicalization, which
implies that radicalization has a greater impact on society than
do cultic abuses. Charline Delporte, president of CAFFES, or
the National Center of Family Support and Education against
Cultic Influence (Centre national d’accompagnement familial et
de formation face à l’emprise sectaire), recently observed that
“[t]he fight against cultic abuses is no longer very important in
the eyes of the government,” adding that, “[s]ince 2012, terrorist
attacks have displaced the cursor toward radical Islam, and
we have become secondary.”5 Moreover, Delporte regrets the
impending loss of MIVILUDES’ diversity, as only the policing
division will be left.6
Controversies Around Anthroposophy
There have been some accusatory exchanges in recent French
publications regarding Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, and
Waldorf Schools. Founded in 1912 with the Austrian thinker
and mystic Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) at its center, the
Anthroposophical Society is a worldwide spiritual, occultist,
philosophical, and social movement that also influences
agriculture, banks, medicine, health products, and at least
1,850 kindergartens and 1,100 schools, called Steiner-Waldorf
schools.7
In his long article for Le Monde diplomatique in July 2018, the
journalist Jean-Baptiste Malet has implied, although he doesn’t
provide hard evidence, that Françoise Nyssen, the former
director of the publishing house Actes Sud, and Minister of
Culture from May 2017 to October 2018, is associated with
Anthroposophy.8 In 2015, according to Malet, Nyssen and
her husband established in Arles what amounts to a Steiner-
Waldorf school, Le Domaine du possible. Though not officially
part of the Steiner-Waldorf educational system, this school was
under the leadership of Henri Dahan, Chief Delegate of the
Federation of Steiner-Waldorf Schools in France until he was
fired from Le Domaine in July 2018. As a student at this school
remarked, “[our] professors say that this isn’t a Steiner school,
but it’s 100% Steiner.”9
Especially in France, which promotes laïcité, or secularism,
Anthroposophy is often considered a cult, even though it
is not officially categorized as such.10 For instance, Nyssen’s
husband, Jean-Paul Capitani, explained that their school’s lack
of denomination resulted from the fact that “in France there are
too many prejudices against spiritualism and against Steiner in
particular.”11 In other words, these schools’ alternative pedagogy
leads to suspicions that they practice a covert proselytism,
and possibly mind control. Before Nyssen’s governmental
appointment in 2017, MIVILUDES was investigating alleged
abuses in Anthroposophical education and medicine. After
Nyssen’s appointment, MIVILUDES ceased its research. In the
words of its former president Serge Blisko, “the Prime Minister’s
cabinet” recommended that MIVILUDES “remain in stand-by” on
the sensitive issue of Anthroposophy.12
NEWS DESK
SPECIAL REPORTS AND NEWS SUMMARIES
VOLUME 11 |ISSUE 1 |2020
Although it remains unclear whether Steiner-Waldorf schools
hide cultic abuses—as other denominational schools can—in
France there have been legal inquiries into some of these
schools. The most recent and noteworthy case implicates a
former Steiner-Waldorf student and Anthroposophist, Grégoire
Perra, who taught philosophy for 4 years in the Steiner-Waldorf
school of Chatou. He resigned from his position in 2007 and
subsequently broke with the French Anthroposophical Society.
In an October 2019 interview, Perra disclosed, “Because I
left this cult on my own, I know it’s not easy. To leave the
nebula of Anthroposophy, when you have built your life
there, is such a nightmare that victims often have trouble
understanding their past.”13 In 2011, he published an article
critiquing Steiner-Waldorf schools for indoctrinating students
to Anthroposophy.14 In 2013, he created a blog, “The Truth
about Steiner-Waldorf Schools and Anthroposophy” (La vérité
sur les écoles Steiner-Waldorf et l’Anthroposophie), in which he
has extensively accused the Steiner-Waldorf pedagogy and
also Anthroposophical medicine for abusive practices.15 So far,
Perra’s writings have triggered three lawsuits: from the Steiner-
Waldorf School Federation, Anthroposophist medical doctors,
and a Waldorf teacher.16 A judgment on 24 May 2013 acquitted
him and the publisher of his 2011 article for good faith.17 A
more recent judgment, on 1 October 2019, also cleared him.18
Grégoire Perra’s accusations have elicited support but also
criticism from scholars of Anthroposophy and the Steiner-
Waldorf system of education. Maria Noland, PhD candidate in
Anthropology and Education at Columbia University, reached
opposite conclusions to Perra’s after studying the Steiner-
Waldorf method of education and corresponding with Perra.19
Chantal Lapointe, in her 2017 doctoral dissertation on Steiner’s
Pedagogy, denounces Perra for being animated by a desire
for revenge 20 it should be noted, however, that Lapointe is a
member of the Canadian Anthroposophical Society.21 Other
scholars do not detect abuses in the Steiner-Waldorf method
of education. See, for instance, Loïc Chalmel,22 or Heiner
Ulrich. who stated in a recent interview with Die Zeit that
“Anthroposophy is not taught in Waldorf schools.”23 In July
2019, the journalist Martin Bernard, who was partly raised in a
Steiner-Waldorf school, revealed documents alleging that Perra
made sexual advances to a 17-year-old female student and
therefore was probably asked to resign from the school where
he taught.24 In one of his blog articles, Perra blames the student
for having attempted to seduce him.25 Whatever the merits of
his insights into current Anthroposophical practices may be,
Perra’s motivations are unclear, and associated controversies
will likely persist.
Report From Poland
Poitr T. Nowakowski
As a consequence of the Parliamentary election held in
Poland on 13 October 2019, Jacek Bury, representing Koalicja
Obywatelska (“Civic Coalition”), the main opposition party,
gained a Senate seat in Lublin. However, some controversies
have arisen around Bury’s past. “The new senator of Koalicja
Obywatelska from Lublin was a co-founder of a community
that has a reputation of a cult,” wrote the nationwide daily
Rzeczpospolita. This reference is about Kościół Nowego
Przymierza (KNP “The Church of New Covenant”), whose
members describe themselves as biblical Christians. The
church’s leader, Pastor Paweł Chojecki, is known from his
Internet television network program, Idź Pod Prąd (“Against the
Tide”), available through YouTube.
For some years, the program’s regular commentator was a
far-right activist, Marian Kowalski, who wrote after leaving the
program in 2018 that “KNP gradually but effectively isolates
its members from families and acquaintances from outside
the group these people are being deprived of privacy and
are subjected to permanent control. Eavesdropping and
denunciatory activities are a daily occurrence.”
The senator-elect has a similar opinion. “It [KNP] is de facto
a cult. Manipulating people, hooking them on the group,
monopoly on the truth, monopoly on decisions: These are
features of a cult,” enumerates Bury as quoted by the daily.
How did Bury become involved in KNP? There were things in
the organization of the Catholic Church he couldn’t accept, so
he started to “seek the truth” in a somewhat broader context.
In this way, he got to know all protestant churches, including
that of Paweł Chojecki. While studying, both men established
Wspólnota Chrześcijańską Pojednanie (“Christian Community
Reconciliation”). Bury also confirmed that his name appeared
later, in the registration documents of KNP in 1997 however, he
points out that he left the community after some months when
he realized that it had taken on the traits of a cult.
Chojecki presents a slightly different history of the mutual
relationship. According to him, even though Senator Bury was
a member of KNP for about a year, they collaborated closely
in one of the communities for 11 years. Chojecki added that
Bury was an important figure in KNP and “belonged to a group
of decision makers.” Chojecki’s television program alleges that
Bury “ostentatiously distorts the reality” by marginalizing a
long-time collaboration. The pastor finds accusations of the
church being a cult deeply unfair. “For many people in Poland,
membership in a non-Catholic Church equals cultic affiliation,”
he argues.
Report From Spain and Latin America
Luis Santamaría
Translated by Erika Toren and John Paul Lennon
Groups of Asian Origin
In August 2019, Uruguay’s Department of Organized Crime
decided to shelve the prosecutor’s petition to investigate a
yoga teacher for an alleged human-trafficking case. The name
of the accused is Octav Fercheluc, the manager at the Academia
de Yoga Tradicional Ananda in Montevideo, an affiliate of the
Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (MISA,
Romanian acronym). The complaint that originated the petition
stated that Fercheluc was preparing a trip with four students to
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28 ICSA TODAY
participate in one of the cult’s camps in Romania, and they had
been asked in advance for full-body photos and blood tests for
any sexually transmitted diseases.
Regarding the MISA cult, an extrajudicial agreement was
signed in September in Montevideo, requested by its Urugual
representative, Octav Fercheluc, whereby MISA dropped its suit
against two cult experts, Álvaro Farías and Miguel Pastorino,
who had publicly exposed the group’s activities MISA also
dropped the suit against the media that had published critical
information. The agreement was made without economic
consideration, and without the accused retracting their
published information, which was true.
A few days after this agreement was made public, the
Uruguayan weekly, Búsqueda, published the testimony of a
young woman who began yoga classes at the Universidad de
la República, given by Octav Fercheluc. Three years later, the
young woman had taken tantra and shakti yoga at the cult’s
headquarters (in Montevideo) she left her partner and was
invited to travel to Romania upon receiving the approval of
the world guru of MISA, Gregorian Bivolaru (currently on the
run). However, she was arrested by the police and so never
went. Finally, she was presented as a victim, and the case was
reopened.
Esoteric and New Age
From the 26th to the 31st of August, the Center for Olympic
Studies in Chinchilla de Montearagón, Albacete, Spain,
organized the First International Olympic Education Summit
with 140 athletes from 10 countries. According to information
from the Red Iberoamericana de Estudio de las Sectas (RIES),
the majority of speakers and trainers at this event were
members of Nueva Acrópolis. Since 2018, it has been a well-
known fact that there is a strange connection between this
esoteric cult and the Spanish Royal Olympic Academy, and even
between the cult and the Spanish Olympic Committee.
The Department of Health of the autonomous government of
Catalonia, Spain suspects there are several high schools with a
high number of unvaccinated children. These are centers that
follow the Waldorf teaching system and that doctrinally depend
on the Anthroposophical Society. According to Professor of
Epidemiology Antoni Trilla, “the UK Health Protection Agency
declared in 2013 that the Steiner Schools were ‘high risk,’ and
defined them as ‘non-vaccinated communities.’ According to
the agency, these schools create a direct risk for those children
who are studying within and for the surrounding community.”
In October, the Superior Criminal Court of Peru confirmed a
sentence of 20 years in jail for Felix Steven Manrique, a cult
leader who had kidnapped a young Spanish girl, Patricia
Aguilar, through Facebook when she was still a minor and
convinced her to join him once she turned 18. In Peru, he
subjected her, together with four young Peruvian girls, to sexual
and work exploitation. The sentence indicates that the victims
“ended up believing in a way of life where he manipulated
them at his whim, taking advantage of the vulnerable state
they were in.”
Shamanism
From the 11th to 18th of September, the town of Candeleda
in Avila, Spain celebrated the XI European Encounter of the
Santo Daime Church, a cult of Brazilian origin that affirms that
ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic substance, is a “sacrament,” and
with this argument has achieved legal status in Spain as a
religious organization.
In early October, the Prosecutor of Arica and the Chilean police
uncovered a hidden laboratory making synthesized DMT
(dimethyltryptamine) and ayahuasca. Their effects are high
powered and can lead a person from a normal state of being to
an altered state of consciousness in a matter of seconds, which
becomes frightening and disorientating. n
NEWS SUMMARIES
Megachurch pastor allegedly smuggled more than $100K
out of United States
“Controversial Filipino megachurch Pastor Apollo Quiboloy,
who was arrested by federal agents in Honolulu, Hawaii, last
year after weapons and $350,000 were found on his private
jet, has been accused of previously smuggling hundreds of
thousands of dollars out of the country. Quiboloy, who founded
the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Church, which he claims has
4 million tithing followers in the Philippines and 2 million
more in other countries including the United States, allegedly
smuggled money out of the country on two separate occasions
in 2013 and 2014, Hawaii News Now reported. Former church
member Kristina Angeles said she witnessed Quiboloy and
Felina Salinas, a manager for the Hawaii branch of the Kingdom
of Jesus Christ Church, order ‘church members [to conceal] U.S.
currency in black socks,’ during the noted time frame, Assistant
U.S. Attorney Michael Albanese wrote in court documents. ‘The
socks were packed in a suitcase which was transported to the
Philippines.’” (Christian Post, 09/13/19)
Benny Hinn renounces selling of God’s blessings
“Benny Hinn says he is done with the prosperity gospel. But
longtime observers are not ready to take his word on faith. Hinn
has been a leading proponent of prosperity gospel theology
since the 1980s, teaching that God rewards active faith with
health and wealth. But on September 2, during his 3-hour,
50-minute weekly broadcast, Hinn said he had changed. ‘I am
correcting my own theology and you need to all know it,’ the
televangelist told his studio audience and those watching
online. ‘The blessings of God are not for sale. And miracles are
not for sale. And prosperity is not for sale.’ Hinn said he now
believes such give-to-get theology is offensive to God. He
specifically repudiated the practice of asking for ‘seed money,’
where televangelists tell people that God will bless them if
they give a specific dollar amount. Hinn himself has done this
numerous times, promising God will give material blessings in
VOLUME 11 |ISSUE 1 |2020 2729
exchange for a gift of $1,000. On Monday, he said he wouldn’t
do it anymore. ‘I think giving has become such a gimmick,’ Hinn
said. ‘It’s making me sick to my stomach. And I’ve been sick for a
while too. I just couldn’t say it. And now the lid is off. I’ve had it.
You know why? I don’t want to get to heaven and be rebuked.’
Some of the Christians who have watched him closest, however,
viewed the apparent renunciation with skepticism. While they
want to be open to the possibility of true repentance, and say
God could have changed Hinn’s heart, they are waiting for some
evidence of his transformation.” (Christianity Today, 09/07/19)
Evidence that China is brainwashing Uighur children
“New evidence is emerging that the Chinese campaign to
exterminate the culture and traditions of Turkic Muslim
people, chiefly Uighurs, in the Xinjiang region also includes
a generation of children and young people. As their parents
are hauled off to concentration camps—euphemistically
called ‘vocational education’ by the Chinese authorities—the
children are being herded into special boarding schools
and orphanages. At these schools, the children can check in
but they cannot leave. The comprehensive effort to create a
separate brainwashing and imprisonment system for children
deepens the evidence that China is committing a cultural
genocide. Up to 1.5 million adults in Xinjiang have been forced
into the camps, where China is attempting to reeducate them
as part of the Han Chinese majority, wiping out their language,
traditions and culture, essentially assassinating their identity.
China at first denied this was going on, but in the past year or
so, incontrovertible evidence has accumulated that China is
trying to delete the mind-set of a whole people. That evidence
includes eyewitnesses and satellite photographs that identify
the new camps.” (The Washington Post, 07/13/19)
Five arrested, 19 rescued from Chinese cult led by female
“living Buddha” in central Taiwan
“Nineteen people were rescued from a Chinese cult, while its
leader and four other followers were arrested in late August, [in]
central Taiwan, after a young Taiwanese was allegedly tortured
to death by cult members in China. The religious cult, China
Baiyang Sigui Lingbao Holy Path (中華白陽四貴靈寶聖道
會), was founded in China by a 61-year-old woman claiming
to be a living Buddha. Surnamed Lin (林), she was busted in a
remote mountainous area of Nantou by Criminal Investigation
Bureau (CIB) officers, Taichung and Nantou police. The raid was
the culmination of several months of investigation begun by
the CIB earlier this year. This followed the suspicious death of
a young female member of the cult, after visiting the group’s
compound in China. In March, the 20-year-old Taiwanese
woman told her family she would be traveling to Nanning,
Guangxi Province, to study religious teachings. She died in
mysterious circumstances and her parents suspected she had
been tortured to death by cult members. Her parents reported
the case to the Taichung District Prosecutor’s Office, which in
turn notified the CIB and joined up with Taichung and Nantou
police to carry out an investigation. Police determined the
Holy Path cult was founded by Lin, who … had been recruiting
followers since 2009.” (Taiwan News, 09/25/19)
Extinction Rebellion dubbed cult, but supporters say radical
change needed
“...XR’s [Extinction Rebellion’s] actions have been applauded
by many environmentalists, who say the only way to make
governments, people and corporations sit up and take climate
action is to shock them into it. But the radical philosophy
underpinning the group, which includes wanting to set up
citizens’ assemblies that could overrule parliament, is drawing
increasing criticism from foes, who compare the group to a
millenarian sect. ‘The cultish nature of XR’s activities is a little
spooky,’ said Austin Williams, director of the Future Cities
Project, a group that focuses on urban planning and futurist
technological solutions. Sympathizers acknowledge that XR
hasn’t helped itself with some of the remarks made by its
leaders. Co-founder Gail Bradbrook said her realization that
humanity was on the brink of extinction came from taking
huge doses of psychedelic drugs, which ‘rewired’ her brain
and gave her the ‘codes of social change.’ ...XR has also seen
defections. Sherrie Yeomans, coordinator of XR blockades
in the English city of Bristol, left the group, saying, ‘I can no
longer surround myself with the toxic, manipulative Extinction
Rebellion cult.’ Johan Norberg, a Swedish author, historian and
XR critic, worries that the group is fueling anxiety while not
being practical about the possible solutions to global warming.
‘I guess it depends on your definition of cult,’ he said. ‘But I think
it is a growing, but very radical, sentiment that I fear plays a part
in giving people anxiety about their life choices, and also leads
us to thinking about these things in the wrong way,’ he told
VOA.” (VOA News, 08/07/19)
Inside the high-security compound in upstate New York
that’s home to a “cult” tyrannized by China
“About 100 people are said to be living in a 400-acre property
in upstate New York, in the shadow of the Shawangunk
Mountains. It’s meant to be a mecca for the estimated tens of
millions of Falun Gong followers, members of a religious and
political group persecuted in China, which calls the group a
‘cult.’ Inside Dragon Springs, according to sources who spoke
to NBC News, internet access is restricted, medicine is barely
used, and relationships are often arranged. David Ownby, a
history professor at the University of Montreal who studied
Falun Gong, also calls it a cult and says it exists because of
China’s efforts to keep traditional religions weak. For years,
nearby towns like Deer Park have been trying to rein in the
compound. But Falun Gong leaders want to expand it even
more. It wants to build a 920-seat music hall, a new parking
garage, a wastewater treatment plant, and turn a meditation
hall into a residence hall. If allowed, the compound would go
from housing 100 people to 500.” (Business Insider, 09/09/19)